Don Lough lives in Syracuse.

Every year, headlines declare that the Syracuse City School District is “failing” — that test scores are low and something is deeply wrong. Those stories make for dramatic reading, but they miss a much bigger truth: the remarkable work being done every day by SCSD teachers, students and families.

I’m a graduate of East Syracuse–Minoa. I know the reputation suburban schools hold in Onondaga County. Yet when it came time to educate my children, I chose to stay in the city — not because I had to, but because I believed in what SCSD was building.

Eight years ago, when Montessori at LeMoyne opened, I enrolled my first child there. Today, my fifth-grader thrives — developing independence, curiosity and compassion. My older child, now in sixth grade at Syracuse L

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